COLUMN: Election indifference

Tomorrow, the election will occur, and, hopefully by late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, we will know who the next president of the United States will be.

I’m kind of indifferent, and I almost don’t care.

I care just enough to tune into CNN and stay up-to-date about the happenings of the Obama and Romney campaigns right up until the final votes are tallied.

It’s sort of like the last few innings of the World Series or the last few minutes of the NBA Finals. I’ll tune in for a moment, then, once I know the winner, I go back to whatever happened to be occupying my time.

That’s about the extent to which I care about the elections this year, or any year for that matter.

And the old creed of “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain” applies here. So I won’t complain. I’ll just go on living.

For me, on the most basic level, elections and voting don’t change how I live my day-to-day life. Or maybe they do in such ways I’m totally unaware of. It’s probably a bit of both.

I’m a journalist. Staying informed on local, state and national issues is kind of a prerequisite. Mostly though, my television in my room is off, and I’ll check CNN on my phone a couple times a day. Not too much on the information-gathering front.

Staying informed and making an informed decision about who the next leader of the free world will be is pretty important.

That’s the reason I’m not voting this year: I honestly care too much that I hold myself to a high standard of knowledge regarding issues, and, if I don’t know the issues, voting on them seems kind of absurd. It’s like buying a house without a thorough inspection first. No one would do that.

It’s not that I don’t care. It might seem that way since I’m not voting, but it’s quite the opposite.